Containers



H. BECKER CONTAINERS Jan. 1, 1957 Filed May 12. 1953 INVENTOR lle/hr/bfi .Bec/ler BY #pqfle, *6;

I dnwr United States Patent CONTAINERS Heinrich Becker, Hamburg, Germany Application May 12, 1953, Serial No. 354,610 Claims priority, application Germany May 19, 1952 1 Claim. (Cl. 220-97) This invention relates to containers and particularly to containers of the open-box type used for the reception and transport of food.

It is well known to store and transport food and other materials, e. g. meat, bones and margarine, in open-box containers which are usually rectangular in shape and made of metal, handles being provided at the shorter sides of the container. In use, such containers are frequently dragged or slid along the floor of the factory or stor-eroom, e. g. by means of a hook engaging with one of the handles and for this reason the containers are usually provided with reinforcing ridges at the base in order to reduce wear.

Such containers are usually stacked one on the other, for example, in cross-wise relationship. However, this method has the serious disadvantage that dirt picked up by the base of one container tends to fall from it into the container immediately below it and thus contaminate the goods (e. g. meat or margarine) carried by the lower container.

It is an object of this invention to provide a new type of box-like container, especially suitable for the reception and transport of food, whereby the foregoing disadvantage is avoided. It is a further object of this invention to provide a new form of container of which a plurality can be stacked to occupy a minimum of space. A still further object of the invention is to provide such containers which, while not being of excessive weight, have a long useful life and can be very readily dragged or slid along the floor of a factory, store-room or the like.

According to the present invention an open-box type container suitable for the reception and transport of food and other materials comprises an open box comprising a floor and upstanding sides and a plurality of feet secured to said box, the bearing surfaces of the said feet lying wholly below the floor of the said box and wholly outside the external contour of the sides of the said box.

Where the box is of the usual rectangular form it is preferred that the said feet should be secured to the narrow sides of the box. Preferably the feet are pro vided with parts which rest on the walls of an underlying box when the boxes are stacked. The upper edges of the walls of the boxes may be provided with slots for receiving such parts (of the feet of a superimposed box) when the boxes are stacked.

In a convenient form of the invention the bearing members of the said feet are provided as separate replaceable units and are made of a harder material than the box itself or the feet, e. g. of hardened chrome or stainless steel. These bearing members may be secured to the feet by screws and may be either smooth rounded fixed members or may be castors or rollers.

In one form of the invention which is particularly advantageous the feet are of bifurcated structure, one limb being secured to the underside of the floor of the box and the other to the outside of the wall of the box.

The floor of the box may be provided with reinforcing ridges, the bearing surfaces of the feet being below and Patented Jan. 1,1957

external to these ridges and either in line with the ridges or placed on them.

In one form of the invention the feet may serve at the same time as supports for handles which can be raised or lowered.

One embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 illustrates in side elevation two containers according to the invention in stacked relationship,

Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the containers of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 illustrates in front elevation a form of construction of a container according to the invention.

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view taken along the line IV-IV of Fig. 3, but on an enlarged scale.

Referring to these drawings, there is provided an open box container 1, suitable for the reception and transport of food such as meat, fat, bones, margarine and the like, made of a light metal, e. g. aluminium, and being rectangular in shape and with rounded corners. Each of the narrow sides of the box is provided with two feet 2, secured thereto by rivetting, welding, soldering or by any other means. The feet 2 are bifurcated, limb 3 being secured to the side Wall of the box 1 and limb 4 being secured to the underside of the fioor of the box 1.

The feet are provided with bearing units 5 which lie, as shown in the drawings, both below the floor of the box and outside the side walls of the box. The bearing units 5 lie opposite the limbs 4 of the feet 2.

The upper edges of the narrower walls of the box are provided with slots 6 (Fig. 2) in which the limbs 4 of the feet 2 rest when the boxes are stacked.

The boxes may be stacked as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 with their long :axes superimposed, the limbs 4 then resting in the slots 6, so that the boxes are then prevented from lateral displacement. Longitudinal displacement is prevented by the fact that the bearing units 5 of each foot lie to the sides of the next underlying box. The boxes may also be stacked cross-wise, in the more usual fashion.

Since the bearing surfaces of the feet always lie below the floor of the box and outside its sides it follows that, Whichever method of stacking is employed, dirt picked up from the floor of the factory storeroom or the like, cannot fall into the next underlying box and contaminate the goods contained therein. Moreover, the construction ensures that whichever method of stacking is employed there is sufiicient space between the containers to ensure adequate ventilation of the goods contained therein.

In order to increase the strength of the structure each foot may be provided with a lateral reinforcing rib which, together with the foot itself, is attached to the bottom of the box structure, e. g. by welding. Thus in an alternative form of construction the reinforcing ribs of two neighbouring feet may be made as a single rib joining the feet, the Whole being an integral unit. By this method not only is a very simple and reliable form of foot attachment obtained but the structure is of improved strength suflicient to withstand very rough handling. This form of structure is illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4 where a unitary element consisting of two neighbouring feet 3', two lateral reinforcing ribs 9 and a bridging member 10, is welded on to the box.

The box itself may be made of sheet metal or may be constructed as a framework of stilt wire in order to provide particularly eflicient ventilation of the goods, or cooling of the goods where that is necessary, e. g. for meat which has been out ready for making sausages. Thus the box may be constructed of wire rods welded together, the feet being formed of block metal and welded thereto. With this form of box the advantages of hygienic storage, avoidance of contamination when the boxes are stacked, and a long useful life are still obtained.

Further the feet provided according to the present invention enable the-boxes to be readily handled by hoisting equipment, e. g. hoisting trucks, when piles of stacked containers are required to be moved, e. g. to transport them quickly and safely to refrigerating chambers.

I claim:

An open box type container suitable for the reception and transport of food and-other materials; said container comprising an upwardly opening box having a floor and upstanding sides, and a plurality of feet secured to said box and extending obliquely downwardly and outwardly from opposite sides of the latter, said feet terminating in first bearing surfaces lying wholly below the floor of said box and spaced substantial distances outwardly from the external contour of the sides of said box so that, when the box is placed on a supporting surface, said first bearing surfaces engage the latter while said feet hold the floor of saidbox above the supporting surface, and so that, when said box is stacked upon a similar box, said first bearing surfaces are disposed outside of the underlying box to prevent contamination of the contents of the latter by foreign particles picked-up from a supporting surface contacted by said bearing surfaces, and second bearing surfaces on said feet and offset from said first bearing surfaces for engaging the underlying box and spacing the container from the underlying box, each of said feet being bifurcated at its inner end to provide two angularly spaced limbs, one of said limbs being secured to the underside of said floor and the other of said limbs being secured to the adjacent upstanding side of the box, each of said feet further having a reinforcing rib extending laterally therefrom and secured to said box, two of said feet being provided at spaced apart locations on each of said opposite sides of the box, and said reinforcing ribs of the two feet on each of said opp'osite'sides being jointed together to form an integral unit.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 849,999 Hendricks Apr. 9, 1907 1,038,923 Mathy Sept. 17, 1912 1,200,954 Lawlor Oct. 10, 1916 2,477,965 Cribb Aug. 2, 1949 2,667,319 Coit Jan. 26, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 169,534 Switzerland Sept. 1, 1934 

